... the more you speak the less you learn ... You see people around getting professionnal, but perhaps yourself you are not pretty sure you can be more useful to do the same...

I can tell you, this is right.
Seems to be the same with me too.
C'est la vie.

Btw:
Do you know Christelle Berthon?
Does she also perform in public (concerts and festivals), maybe even in other countries than France - especially in eastern Germany or northern Czech Republik?
Or is she just more on youtube?

Yes I know very well Christel Berthon (in fact we exchanged some messages last week again, when I had the chance to listen about her coming 1st CD). We even used to speak a lot on Skype, at the same time she was connected with Jason Ricci...Funny situations. She also came at home sometime.

She recently played with her band at a harmonica festival in west of France...

I believe that she would be happy to be invited to play on a stage with her band outisde of France ... This is a very good experience. That would even encourage her to continue and make more CDs...
I think YouTube is nice to get known, but I am not pretty sure Internet is a very good media in all situation. I believe the best way to know about someone is to meet the person (Internet is a window where a lot of feeling can go through but lots of things going outside that can't see to understand the complexity of human being ...).

I believe that when she got known on Internet, perhaps she was not personnaly ready for it. But she has the feeling and the level. She is very sensitive (you can guess it by her way to play I believe)...
I believe her 1st CD is going to be appreciated by lots of people but I can't tell more because she would murder me then go to Jail ...The trouble is then that she cannot play any more outside if that happens )...

Triona, I understand that you are not far from Seydel company isn't it ? I see a lot Bertram Becher ... I should keep neutral about a brand of harmonica, but I really appreciate this guy who really knows about their customer because he is coming to meet them everywhere something happen in Europe (but also USA)

I have named myself after my first harmonica hero: Charlie McCoy. Hearing him play with so much clairity, precision, smoothness, and sometimes speed (i.e. the Orange Bloosom Special) just blew me away. For the record my second harp hero is Little Walter. The only thing I have in commond with him is our birthdates.

my name is Andreas (Andy would be OK). I live near Bremen in the north of Germany.

A long time ago at the age of 16 I had my first encounter with a diatonic harmonica. I was messing around with it for about 2 years, but not very seriously. Without any teacher or even anyone to play along with, I lost interest after a while. 30 years later I did another approach, this time with a chromatic harmonica. I started about 2 years ago with a Hohner Discovery, followed by several other harmonicas (Hohner, Sydel, Suzuki) during the last two years. I was able to benefit a lot from resources of the internet, which made learning much more efficient than in the "old offline times".

I use some of Brendan's Power combs and sliders an I really love his idea about the twin harmonica system (I don't own one since I'm not good enought to really use it seriously).

"IaNerd" means that I am from Iowa (abbr. Ia) in the heart of the USA, and that I-am-a-nerd.

My first harp was a pearwood Old Standby in 1972. Decades later I remain a novice player. However, I have developed a passion for studying and designing alternate tunings for harmonica and a couple other instruments. I have been a science educator and my music theory--such as it is--is self-taught.

I have played Hohner, LO, Suzuki, Tombo, Swan and Seydel. These days I rely heavily on Seydel's Configurator and their Custom Shop to try new ideas. I intend to use this forum to learn more about alternate tunings and to share my own.

Welcome aboard.
I am also a novice player and a tuning tinkerer ( and a scientist weirdly enough).
The Seydel configurator is great fun, but these days I play more with solder and files when experimenting.

I am Boris Plotnikov from Moscow, Russia. I am professional player, Seydel endorser. I play with two not famous but well-known russian band. I give harmonica lessons, sell Seydel harmonicas and customize harmonicas using microscope, I make perfect overbendable Seydels.
I have 16+ years of playing, 10+ of them professionally. I am mostly stuck to regular richter with overblow setup and solo chromatic, but I also use dorian tuning a lot (great for Russian songs) and recently start to learn diminished tuning. And I respect Brendan for his ideas and playing. I was very impressed with promo video of twin diatonic and hope to try minichrom, switchable octave and x-reed Seydel.

Hi all, I've just been reading the interesting posts about your backgrounds and interests. Thanks for contributing and being here, you all bring a lot to the discussion.

Some of you I know from meeting in person, like Patrice, others from online contacts. Great to have pro players and customisers like Boris here, as well as scientists, tinkerers, and from so many places around the world. The internet is a wonderful thing!

Quite a few from Germany here I see, and with Seydel connections. I concur: Seydel are a great company to deal with. I've known Lars and Bertram a long time, and they have a great attitude to the players.

I've worked with most of the manufacturers over the years, and each of them has their strong points in products and approach. But Seydel are easily the most flexible, approachable, and enthusiastic about supporting alternative ideas through their Partner system.

Their Configurator is a fantastic tool, and one that suits my upcoming Twin-Diatonic harps well. I'll be expanding the range of Seydel versions of my new harps in the near future.

But I'm getting off topic - this thread is about YOU! Thanks again for being here and telling your stories - more please!

I have been struggling with different musical instruments over the years, without much success. It's fun, though. Singing is probably what I do best. I have been playing in rock bands on and off, guitar and vocals, on a very basic level. Here's a sample from the 80's: https://youtu.be/VWjeX_UYvsk.

I first tried out the harp as a teenager and learned a few traditional songs, and at one time I found a book about Sonny Terry. Wow, you can bend the notes! What a revelation! Then, for many years I completely forgot about the harp.

Lately I have been taking up harmonica again (Special 20's), and I just got my Powerbender. So much easier to play!

I'm originally from Stockholm in Sweden. In 1988 I moved to Managua, Nicaragua, and in 2004 I moved to Malmö, Sweden.

In Managua I started a music radio station called Radio Pirata 99.9 FM.

It was active between 1991 and 2004. First radio in Nicaragua to transmit on the internet, actually. Also the first to be computer automated, aiding the presenters at day, and running by itself at night. The computer coding was made entirely by me.

The radio had quite a following at the time and created a subculture, "Generación Pirata", which is documented in a full length movie: https://youtu.be/kb3fzR5Q9aI. We also arranged concerts at the radio premises, giving young musicians the opportunity to reach out to an audience. These concerts were of course also transmitted live.

Cheers,
Karl Nilsson

Last edited by karl.nilsson on Sun Jan 13, 2019 3:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.